Province Trivia Drabbles
by Lizard Pie
Summary: 100 word challenges based on Canadian province and territory trivia.   'I Am Matthiewian' OC's.
1. Ontario

Fact: There have been entire books and movies made surrounding Canada's hatred of Toronto. They're very lucrative in Ontario.

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><p>He'd snuck out of work early, and bought it with four other books. Sandwiched between them, he shoved it into the store bag, and that into a duffle. Ontario darted into his room, and only when he was behind a locked door and covered by a bed sheet did he take the time to breathe. Secure at last, he began to read.<p>

Among the things which were true and he'd laugh along with, the things which were true and he couldn't admit even to himself, he found his guilty pleasure within hating himself along with the rest of his siblings.


	2. Quebec

Fact: The Canadian National spans nearly the entirety of Canada and, thanks to clever purchasing, across 10 states to the Gulf of Mexico.

* * *

><p>It was the same sort of work he did with everyone, just as he'd learned from his papa and his papa before him. Give a little, as a sign of good will, but always be sure to get more in return.<p>

They'd been stubborn, but eventually gave in as he'd hoped they would. He spread his influence with freshly-laid tracks across his siblings and cousins. To keep it prosperous would be work, maybe more than he'd been intending to put out, but it was too late for that now.

He ground his spent cigarette into the dirt and moved on.


	3. Nova Scotia

Fact: A world-record tuna (approx. 1500) was caught during an annual fishing competition.

* * *

><p>In late autumn, the spray of the sea was a slap in the face, and his arms burned as he fought a life-or-death struggle with an animal several times his body weight. The last hurrah of his recreational boating season would be judged and, if he was lucky, recorded for the rest of time.<p>

He'd have to head back to work after this, either killing fish or threatening to kill people, and he'd hardly be able to breathe like this until the season shifted. But, as he hauled the tuna onto his boat, he wasn't thinking about any of that.


	4. New Brunswick

Fact: The Saint John River reverses direction twice a day.

* * *

><p>The spring thaw brought a new life to the river, and it churned about in the foam of the falls. It was simply too early to head out into it, the current would have chewed a sail boat up without mercy. She resigned to watch it from the bank.<p>

Her feet were submerged to the ankle as the water bucked and changed directions. If she sat here long enough, and continued to forget the million things she already was, it'd eventually do it again.

That very soon she'd be back out there, fighting against this same sensation, had her giddy.


	5. Manitoba

Fact: Winnipeg has won 'Slurpee capital of the world' 11 years in a row.

* * *

><p>Winter came in single degree changes, which turned into light flurries melting in the afternoon sun, which turned into raging blizzards. All of a sudden he was climbing out a window to shovel and wondering when, exactly, it had gotten so cold.<p>

It faded just as softly, the landscape gradually losing its fat coating of snow and blossoming into green. The mosquitoes came with it, and he pushed his way through thick clouds of them.

He spent the whole time in his canoe, a Slurpee clamped between his knees and his paddle slipping silently in and out of the water.


	6. Northwest Territories

Fact: There are 8 official languages in the Northwest Territories.

* * *

><p>She was sure to keep ties to her past, the native kind which had become nothing but a stereotype elsewhere. People spoke of the dangers of invasive cultures while they defended the French and English. There had been, and there still was, far more to Canada than what they'd brought. The rage to the south drowned out her insistence. She knew the way they were, when they could insist to the other one that they were right and any other time at all. She hardly brought it up anymore.<p>

She kept it alive in her house because someone had to.


	7. British Columbia

Fact: The Pacific Flyway is used by about 100,000 birds.

* * *

><p>Rain came down in thick, white sheets, and fogged up her camera lens. She hurriedly wiped it off, and returned to her position facing the sky.<p>

They came whether she was ready or not, in heavy beats of wind and feathers. They came in clumps and lines, in masses and isolation. Each had a single-minded determination to find that someplace better.

She snapped away as quickly as she could, in a farewell they were very happy not to realize. In the same way, she'd be there in a few months to greet them. Hopefully, the weather would cooperate by then.


	8. Prince Edward Island

Fact: In the same year men were elected who swore they'd never join Canada, the province voted to join the confederation.

* * *

><p>There was only so much that could be done. Fate was fate, after all. Canada was blossoming, and actively spreading his roots as far as he could. Just a short ways south, their neighbor gobbled up land with just as much ferocity. They were joined by Europeans, who spoke as smoothly as their silken clothing, to disguise that they were being just as terrifyingly greedy.<p>

She was too small to fend them off forever, she knew. No matter what people kept telling her, so confidently, she knew that it was time to pick a horse or be destroyed while stalling.


	9. Yukon

Fact: The oldest evidence of human life in North America was found in Yukon.

* * *

><p>They'd gone looking for fish, and come back with a mammoth spear. Sometime decades later, people would tell her that they were old enough to be the first one there.<p>

It was rare to have something she could hoist over her siblings, given the wealth that surrounded her and the development to the south. Not that they didn't try, they often announced they'd found something older, something more concrete than the shards and bits she'd discovered. Seemingly every year, these were disproved.

She made her way past the cave to find fish, and wondered what she'd find a bit deeper.


	10. Saskatchewan

Fact: The province awarded a goat several medals for its service in World War I.

* * *

><p>The most important thing was to keep smiling. Storms, for as dark as they would often be, only ever lasted so long.<p>

He watched his siblings crumble with depression, and his cousins cough up blood, as they fought in a war that truth be told had very little to do with any of them. He watched his ancestors scream, bleed, and get up to do the same to someone else. The world spiraled as they all tried to simply gain their footing.

He pinned a medal to the fur that helped him remember that this, too, would one day pass.


	11. Alberta

Fact: Alberta houses the world's largest beaver dam.

* * *

><p>You had to hike to find it, as far out of the way as it'd tucked itself. That sounded odd, since people who knew about those sorts of things said that it could be seen from a space station.<p>

He could believe that, mostly. It was huge, after all, a carefully tended rag-tag assembly of sticks glued with saliva and mud. It was only going to grow larger with each passing generation, if people didn't creep up on it more than they already were.

It was worth the hike, if only to see the last real dedication in the world.


	12. Newfoundland and Labrador

Fact: Labrador, upon discovery by the French, was labeled 'the land God gave Cain'.

* * *

><p>They'd been declared barren by Europeans who'd arrived on their banks searching for who knew what. Despite the label, settlers arrived by the boatful and built up homes. While they grew readily, it hadn't been enough to keep them there. Eventually, the temptations of what was (and what they simply thought was) out west dragged them away again. Labrador came to sit, if reluctantly, beside his new partner as they watched them go.<p>

They grew ill from the abandonment, but it was alright.

They were far from barren. Someday, when the Europeans were done searching, they'd come to understand that.


	13. Nunavut

Fact: Nunavut has the land equivalent of Europe, but a population of about 33,000.

* * *

><p>Her land was vast, which was an understatement. It did, though, seem to satisfy her southern brothers and sisters who were obsessed with measured roads and days.<p>

She followed caribou herds and seals, and sometimes went for a week without laying eyes on another person. It tended to be even longer before she saw more than a handful of them at a time. For as lonely as it could be, she wondered how the others could bear to live like they did.

She fell asleep, and wondered what it must feel like to be drowning within a sea of people.


End file.
